The invention relates to a support for display devices in the cockpits of aircraft.
Aircraft manufacturers seek to improve the configuration of the front zone of the fuselage, referred to as the “nose section”, which contains in particular the cockpit. In this respect, all of the major components of the cockpit are involved and in particular the instrument panel and the glare shield, both of which are situated facing the pilot. The instrument panel carries dials and monitors giving the pilot an instantaneous state of various flight parameters and various other kinds of information. It also carries members enabling the pilot to control various actions.
The instrument panel in a cockpit used to be constituted by a metal sheet having openings in which various dials were received. Those pieces of equipment are connected electrically from behind the panel. Those pieces of equipment also have their own ventilation system.
As airplanes have improved, instrument panels have been provided with control members and in particular actuation levers. However, with increasing density of control members and dials on the instrument panel, it has become increasingly difficult to have access to those pieces of equipment behind the panel, while performing maintenance.
More recently, dials have been progressively replaced by monitors having screens associated with electrical power supply systems and ventilator devices. Nevertheless, those can give rise to major vibration problems.
Finally, the present trend is to place monitors as much as possible so that they run on one from another. When an airplane is not of very large dimensions, this often involves deforming the nose section in order to incorporate a bulky instrument panel.
At present, each support formed by the instrument panel and the glare shield is found to be problematic in numerous aspects. It presents a transverse size that penalizes the aerodynamic shape of the airplane. It is complicated to make and therefore expensive. It is both bulky and heavy. It is sensitive to vibration. Finally, it is difficult to install and to inspect.